Live Music Archive

Privacy Policy

Live Music Archive was built with privacy in mind. Neither the app nor the website uses third-party analytics software or advertising. Apple may share some usage data with us through App Store Connect, but only if you opt in under iOS Settings → Privacy & Security → Analytics & Improvements → Share with App Developers.

Your library stays yours. We do not store your favorites, playlists or listening history on our servers. In the app, all of that is stored on your device, or privately in your iCloud account if you have iCloud enabled. A few optional features you switch on yourself talk to other services; those are listed below.

Anonymous usage data from the app

If you'd like to help, the app can send us anonymous usage data so we can see which parts of it people enjoy and which they never find. It is off unless you turn it on. After you have been using the app for a few days we ask once, and a no is fine. You can change your mind any time under More → Privacy → Share Anonymous Usage Data.

When it is on, the app sends tallies of what happened. In plain words, they fall into a few groups:

• Listening: starting a show, skipping a track, finishing a track or a show, how long audio played and when it stalled (with the audio format, like FLAC or MP3), how much of that time the app was in the background or playing a download, playback errors with a rough reason (no connection, timed out, bad file and so on), whether the show the app picked to play next was offered and then played (never which show), and the kind of audio output in use (speaker, headphones, Bluetooth, AirPlay or CarPlay).
• Your library: adding or removing a favorite (only whether it was an artist, venue, location or taper), downloading a recording, using the queue, playlists, notes and tags, and the sleep timer.
• Around the app: which tab or kind of screen you opened, what kind of screen you are on (an iPhone, an iPad, an iPad app on a Mac, or an iPhone Duo), once each time you open the app, how many results a search found, which visualizer look you settled on, using the listening stats, opening the Stickers row, a recording's reviews or its Same night, same venue row, and which size of tip you left.
• First steps: which ones you've taken (first launch, first play, first favorite, first download), each sent once. The app remembers these on your phone before you opt in, and sends them only if you turn sharing on.
• Sessions and health: how many seconds the app was open in front of you, how long after you opened it you first pressed play, and roughly how long it took to launch (a size, not an exact time). Also how the app was closed: a normal exit, a crash, or being stopped for using too much memory or taking too long. These come from the exit counts iOS keeps for every app. Apple adds them up before the app sees them, so they can't tell us which launch had a problem or why. It also includes how many seconds you listened while the app was in the background or the screen was locked, and how many seconds you listened to downloaded shows with no network. These are parts of your total listening seconds, they carry no show or artist, and they're sent about once a day.
• Year-end recap: that you opened it, which card you reached and where you shared it. Never what was on the card.
• Settings and features: a snapshot of the settings you have chosen (such as audio format, appearance or the language the app is set to, picked from the languages the app ships in) about once a day. Switching scrobbling on or off (never what you played) is sent when you do it, and which new features were switched on for you is sent once per launch.

It does not send your name, your email, an account, a device identifier, what you searched for, or which shows, artists or venues you looked at.

Each batch carries only the context needed to read the tallies: the app version and build, your iOS major version with no minor, and whether you are on an iPhone or an iPad. Timestamps are rounded to the minute.

Events are grouped by a session number that is made up fresh every time you open the app and is never reused. It lets us see that a handful of events happened in one sitting; it cannot be used to recognise you or your device the next time you open the app. Events wait on your device, with their session number, until they are sent.

They go out in small batches, at most every few hours, and only once at least 10 are waiting or the oldest has waited a day, so a light user sends about once a day. The app sends only over a network that is not cellular, a personal hotspot or in Low Data Mode. Along with a batch, the app may attach a short-lived token from Apple's App Attest, which only shows that the request came from a genuine copy of the app. It carries no name or account.

Turning it off stops the app counting anything and throws away whatever was waiting to be sent. Nothing more is recorded or sent.

There is a second switch, Help Improve Artist Recommendations, also off by default and not shown to everyone yet. Today it only keeps a random, resettable number on your device and sends nothing. If that changes, this page will say so first.

Usage data goes to our own server (usage.livemusicarchive.app). It is not shared with advertisers or anyone else, sold or rented. We keep raw events for 90 days, then only daily totals remain. Because none of it is tied to you, we cannot pick out one person's events to export or delete, and neither can anyone who asked us to. Apple's App Store Connect may show us its own numbers if you share them with developers, as described above.

Features that use other services

Some features only contact another service when you use them. Scrobbling sends what you listen to to Last.fm or Libre.fm once you sign in and turn it on. Signing in with an Internet Archive account is between you and archive.org. None of this goes through our servers.

The newsletter

The website has an optional monthly email. If you sign up, we collect your email address, the date you signed up, and whether you confirmed it. Buttondown also logs the IP address and browser you signed up from, as a record of consent. Nothing else from the site, the app or your listening is added to it.

The list is kept by Buttondown (buttondown.com), who send the emails for us and act as our processor. We send a confirmation email first, and nothing else goes out until you click it. The emails have no open or click tracking. Every email has an unsubscribe link that works in one click, with no login.

Newsletter questions. Who sees my address? Us and Buttondown, and nobody else. We don't share, sell or rent it. How long do you keep it? Until you unsubscribe. Ask and we'll delete it completely. How do I ask? Email contact@livemusicarchive.app.

Anonymous usage data from the website

The website (livemusicarchive.app and livemusicarchive.io) sends us anonymous usage data to help us work out which parts of it people actually use. It is on by default, because there is no account or setting on the site to hang a toggle on, and if your browser sends a Global Privacy Control or Do Not Track signal the site sends nothing at all.

It sends counts of pages viewed by type (the artist index, a recording page), shows started, tracks skipped, shows finished, playback errors, continuous play being switched or moving on to the next show, offline downloads, searches for an artist or within one (only that one happened, and roughly how much it found), and taps on an App Store link (and which one) or on a link out to archive.org, which row of the Discover page you tapped, how a list was sorted, that you scrolled far enough for a list to load more, tracks played to the end, and shows that failed to play, plus how many seconds the page was open in front of you, how many seconds music was playing, how long after the page loaded you first pressed play, and whether you are on a phone, a tablet or a desktop. It also sends what kind of site you came from (a search engine, a social network, archive.org, or nowhere in particular; never the page itself), whether you came through a social app's built-in browser, whether the site is installed as an app, whether you were offered the install button and what you did with it, whether the play button was on screen when a recording page opened, and which build of the site you were using. It does not send your name, your email, an account, which shows or artists you looked at, what you searched for, or any cookie or identifier. Timestamps are rounded to the minute.

Events are grouped by a session number that is made up fresh on every page load and never stored. It lets us see that a handful of events happened in one sitting; it cannot be used to recognise you or your browser the next time you visit.

The website also keeps a short list of the shows you've played, on your own device, so it can offer "Pick up where you left off". That list is never sent to us. You can clear it any time under More.

Shows you heart on the website are kept on your own device too, and never sent to us. If you enter an archive.org screen name, this site looks up that account's public favorites from archive.org and remembers the name on this device. We never ask for or see your archive.org password, and the name isn't sent to us.

The Terms and Privacy pages opened from inside the iOS app send nothing.

Usage data is kept on a server we run, and it is not shared with anyone else, sold or rented. Because none of it is tied to you, we cannot pick out one person's events to export or delete, and neither can anyone who asked us to.

The app collects diagnostics (recent events, logs, and device info) to help resolve problems if they pop up. They're stored on your device and never uploaded automatically. If you'd like to send them to us, Share Diagnostics in the Support menu opens the iOS share sheet so you choose where they go (typically email to contact@livemusicarchive.app). You can turn diagnostic collection off in the Support menu, but that makes it harder to help you if something goes wrong.

Messages you send from the app. You can send us a message or report a translation that reads wrong from More > Support. A message sends what you wrote, your app version and build, your iOS version, your device model, and your language and region. A translation report also says which screen or text you're looking at. If you add an email address, we use it only to reply. A short log of recent app activity is attached only if you turn on Include diagnostics, and it can include things like shows you played. We never attach your listening history, favorites or playlists. We don't store your IP address or a device identifier with a message. We keep messages for 90 days, then delete them. Your email address is never used for anything else, and nothing here is shared with advertisers or anyone else.

By using Live Music Archive, you are subject to the Internet Archive's Terms & Privacy Policy since Live Music Archive accesses the Internet Archive's API for your listening pleasure.

Not affiliated with the Internet Archive (archive.org) or Phish.in. Recordings are streamed from their public collections.

Live Music Archive may access Phish.in's API to stream Phish audience recordings; when it does, your use of that content is subject to Phish.in's Privacy Policy.

Apart from the anonymous usage data described above, there is nothing on our end to retain, export or delete, because your library stays on your device and in your own iCloud account. If you have a privacy question or request, email contact@livemusicarchive.app.

Live Music Archive does not sell or rent your data, and never will.